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Juan Carlos Holmes
| posting = ''Labyrinth'' Station/Project Loki | position = Commanding officer | rank = Rear admiral (lower grade) | role = Commanding Officer, [[USS Icarus (NCC-68954-A) | USS Icarus]] }} Early Life Born just prior to the Cardassian War to a Starfleet engineer and a Bajoran refugee, Juan Holmes grew up on Earth and has a human name. As a child, he was known for taking apart engines and equipment, just to see what made them operate. He was actively interested in languages and now speaks five Earth tongues as well as Bajoran, Rihannsu, and Klingon. At the age of fifteen, he returned to Bajor and joined the Resistance, where he remained for over three years repairing and constructing items for the Gunara Resistance Cell. Though the cell was very active, he himself never once fired his weapon, usually remaining outside the actual combat operations in order to perform the group's maintenance activities. After a Cardassian raid destroyed his resistance cell's base-of-operations (and most of the cell) in 2365, Holmes and some of the surviving members fled to Dreon. Planning to return to Bajor, Holmes instead found himself hired by Damon Greyheart of the independent freighter Auriga after repairing the ship when the previous mechanic failed. Holmes spent the next two years aboard the Auriga as ship's mechanic, befriending Greyheart, along with crewmembers Elaithin Jii and James Mitchell, both of whom were fellow Bajorans, and long-term passenger Frank Therrien, who, unbeknownst to the crew for most of the time Holmes was there, was actually an active member of Starfleet Intelligence. Holmes was known by the crew of the Auriga as consistently optimistic and cheerful, though very few of his current Starfleet companions believe a word of that. It was during this period that Holmes learned how to fight and how to pilot, though he initially met with little success at either. Starfleet In 2367, after Rae Weber was forcibly removed from the ship by agents of the mysterious organization known as 'Section 31', Therrien left the crew, and Elaithin and Mitchell both decided to enroll at Starfleet Academy. Holmes didn't wish to remain behind, and so he followed the two, though he really had no idea what he was going to do in Starfleet. Originally an engineering major, he got his first taste of Starfleet's regulatory society at the Academy, and quit the engineering program in disgust after only a semester. Unsure of what to do then, he chose flight control on a whim, and then ended up laterally transferring into the fighter track. Discovering a natural talent for piloting small craft, he tended to amaze his instructors with his knowledge of the actual mechanics of his craft, which was not normal for most fighter pilots. A much less stringent and regulatory discipline that engineering, Holmes enjoyed fighter piloting, and graduated on Stardate 48452. Graduating as an excellent fighter pilot, Holmes was assigned to the 21st Phoenix Squadron of the Federation Provisional Starfighter Forces, a newly organized division of Starfleet, separating the fighters from the individual starships and bringing them under a unified command structure. For four years Holmes served with this unit, fighting in only three actions - two of them during the brief Klingon War - prior to the outbreak of the Dominion War, but distinguishing himself in all. The Dominion War Upon the commencement of the war, the 21st was initially stationed on the starship Majestic, and was present for several early actions of the Sixth Fleet. During the squadron's assignment to the Majestic, Holmes befriended the chief flight control officer and second officer of the ship, Lieutenant commander Lawrence Emerson-Davies. War losses led to Holmes' rapid promotion, and within a few months, he found himself promoted to Flight Officer (the equivalent of Lieutenant junior grade and given command of the third flight of the 21st. A month later, he was given temporary assignment as a Flight Leader with the 42nd Dark Angels, a special operations squadron. It was here that he met a promising young officer, Pilot Ares Treagor Khoma. The 42nd, commanded by Squadron Leader Al'Akalion, was operating under the auspices of Starfleet Intelligence, and was commanded by a Lieutenant Rochefort to infiltrate Cardassian space and destroy a suspected Jem'Hadar cloning facility on stardate 51294.7 Unbeknown to the members of the 42nd, Rochefort knew the facility did not exist, and instead was using the 42nd as bait to distract the Dominion from Starfleet Intelligence's actual goal of sending the cruiser Nottingham to gather intelligence on Ketrecel White production. A faction of Starfleet Intelligence, led by a Rear admiral Richelieu and acting against orders, was hoping to steal Ketrecel production equipment and figure out a method to modify the drug for Starfleet use, providing Intelligence personnel with the drug's stimulating and strengthening properties, but without the addiction. However, the Dominion saw through the ruse and destroyed the Nottingham before it ever crossed the border. Rochefort's planned feint was a failure, as well, as the Dominion had sufficient forces in the area to cover both attacks. Thus, when the 42nd reached the alleged cloning facility, there was a vastly superior force awaiting them, and only Holmes, Khoma, and Flight Officer Selok managed to escape from the trap. During his absence, his spot in the 21st had been temporarily filled by another pilot, and so Holmes found himself assigned as acting Assistant Chief Flight Control Officer on the Majestic, serving beside Lieutenant Commander Emerson-Davies, under the command of Captain Nelis Saler. The two officers became close, and Emerson-Davies soon asked Holmes to be the best man at his upcoming wedding, to which the younger officer immediately agreed. Returning to the 21st after three pilots were lost in a fleet holding action on stardate 54202.3, Holmes arranged to have Khoma and Selok, the other survivors of the 42nd, transferred in to fill the open slots. Within a week, the Majestic and the 21st were participating in Operation: Return, the action to retake Deep Space 9. Assigned to Vice admiral deMercereau's 74th Battle Group, the Majestic and her sister ship Sitak were assigned to flanking positions for the . Both ships were soon hit, and the Sitak was completely destroyed. The Majestic, severely damaged, was abandoned. Only thirty-nine members of her crew survived, including her captain. Neither Emerson-Davies nor his fiancé were among them. During the court-martial of Captain Saler afterwards, Holmes was one of many to come to the conclusion that the Trill captain was responsible for the vessel's loss, and, therefore, for Emerson-Davies' death. At his friend's funeral, Holmes met Emerson-Davies' father, Master chief petty officer Ambrose Southall Emerson of the Ticonderoga. This would be the first of many meetings between the young Holmes and the experienced Emerson. Reassigned to the Ninth Fleet, the 21st took part in several major actions of the war, including the initial assault on AR-558 and both battles at Chin'Toka. Promoted to Lieutenant, Holmes was present for the final assault on Cardassia, in which his flight was instrumental in preventing the IKS Tok'bor from being destroyed in a Dominion flanking maneuver. Finishing the war with twenty-eight confirmed kills, Holmes decided to transfer out of fighters when the Provisional Starfighter Corps was disbanded at the end of the war, on the assumption that it wouldn't be needed any longer. The FDTF As alleged peace settled over the Federation, Holmes was accepted to the Federation Defensive Task Force Advanced Academy at Hyperion on stardate 52047.8 and trained as a starship helmsman, the first one to graduate from the Hyperion campus shortly after its founding. He was posted aboard the USS Aztec (NCC-60628), and then aboard her replacement. Almost immediately after entering the FDTF, Holmes was forced to take an emergency leave of absence due to the still-unexplained murder of his father, and he returned to the FDTF two months later and joined the crew of the USS Knight (NCC-68572) on stardate 52612.3. During the FDTF battle to repel Section 31 from Deep Space Nine on stardate 53187.1, Holmes led the three fighter squadrons of the Knight; Stingray, Inferno, and Maco squadrons, better known as Gieger's Tigers. He and his thirty-six fighters were instrumental in defending the unshielded FDTF fleet after Section 31's use of the FDTF prefix codes, and his squadrons were responsible for the destruction of four Section 31 vessels. Near the end of the battle Holmes' fighter was destroyed and he ejected. As he was too close to a passing FDTF vessel, his ejection seat (or, more specifically, his suit helmet) collided, and Holmes suffered severe injuries; namely seven broken and two cracked ribs, a broken left leg, puncturing of both the coronary artery and left lung, a ruptured spleen, massive burns, a serious concussion, and a lost left eye, which was replaced with an optical implant. He was off duty for three weeks, despite estimates of up to three months. After the destruction of the Knight while stopping the Pinball (a large spherical pseudo-asteroidal object) from crashing into the planet Beria during an attempted first contact on stardate 53810.6, Holmes served temporarily as executive officer to the Knight’s crew while Captain Ethan Corrigan recovered, then took short-term command for the last couple of days of the crew's journey back to Starbase Valhalla aboard the USS Renegade (NCC-60582-A), due to the injury of Commander Jordan Levi. Holmes remained in temporary command of the crew when they where given a new ship, the USS Knight (NCC-60572-A), which remained in dock pending their Captain's return. During this time, Commander Levi disappeared, and Holmes turned command over to Security chief/Tactical officer Lieutenant Gavyn Hughes, at which point Holmes and departed for parts unknown aboard the experimental USS Patriot (NX-79481) with Commander Levi. After the Knight-A was launched, she headed to Starbase 257. There, Admiral Richelieu arrested Captain Corrigan, and took him to an undisclosed location. When Commander Levi called a staff meeting, only one senior officer was present, and she found a message from Holmes stating that he and Lieutenants Khoma, Durden, and Hughes had learned through one of Hughes' intelligence contacts of Admiral Richelieu's identity as Section 31, and had gone to follow him. During the Captain's rescue, a Section 31 operative known as Commander Rochefort was killed by Lieutenant Khoma, and Admiral Richelieu died at the hands of Captain Corrigan. Upon his return to Valhalla, Holmes was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and within a week was commanding the assault force that landed first on the Hyperion moon after it was taken over by the Nesh'Ra on stardate 54012.2. After the retaking of Hyperion, Holmes transferred off of the Knight-A to take a permanent position aboard Valhalla solely to command the FDTF Starfighter Division, despite his new rank of commander (effective stardate 54053.4) being technically appropriate to commanding a group, a unit one-sixth the size of his new command. After his transfer to the station, Commander Holmes requested that the decommissioned starship USS Majestic be turned over to his command, at which point it was sent to Embassy Fleet Yards and received an extensive overhaul, being recommissioned as the prototype for the Chamberlain-class escort carrier, the USS Chamberlain (NCC-43370). Commander Holmes took command of the Chamberlain on 19 February 2377. Utopia Planetia and Starfleet Command Commander Holmes was then reassigned to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to assist in the further construction of new-build vessels based on the Chamberlain prototype. Given the brevet rank of Captain shortly after his arrival at the yards, Holmes' successful field test of the newly-constructed USS Vincent (NCC-61091), second starship of the Chamberlan-class, earned him the full grade of Captain effective stardate 54424.8, at the age of thirty-one, one of the youngest officers ever to attain that rank. After a further six months serving as a field adviser to Utopia Planitia's engineers, Holmes received an appointment to the staff of Fleet admiral William Ross, then Starfleet Chief-of-Operations, as senior tactical adviser. However, after only two months serving at Headquarters, Captain Holmes requested a transfer. He was transferred to Seventh Fleet Command at Starbase 375, where he spent two months awaiting orders before being returned to command of the Chamberlain, newly assigned to patrol duties at the station. Five months later, Admiral Ross succeeded in securing Holmes a temporary promotion to Fleet captain (to rank from stardate 55716.4), and command of a special defense squadron of the Seventh Fleet, based at Starbase Elysium. The Icarus Upon arrival, Holmes was transferred to command of the . Only days later, several perimeter defense outposts were destroyed by a small Breen raiding squadron, passing through Federation space on their way to attack targets within the Cardassian Union. Holmes was ordered to take his force and pursue the Breen. After a preliminary skirmish with trailing elements of the Breen task group, Holmes' unit reinforced a small group of Cardassian cruisers under the command of Gul Latok. Together, the two groups succeeded in defeating the Breen force. After waiting for a week of inaction, receiving badly-needed personnel (but few supplies), Holmes received orders from Starfleet Command; he was to take the Icarus and - in the company of Gul Latok aboard the warship Damar and Klingon General Kohteth aboard the attack cruiser Du'Qov - go to Cardassia Prime to open negotiations with the Cardassian Detapa Council for better relations between the Federation-Klingon Alliance and the post-Dominion War government of the Cardassian Union. Shortly after arrival at Cardassia Prime, separatist terrorists within the Cardassian Union bombed the primary marketplace of the capital city. As a gesture of good-will, Holmes assigned Starfleet personnel to assist in the rescue operations and subsequent investigations. During these investigations, he was introduced to the head of Cardassian internal security, Viria Gul Jarol, who had run a Bajoran labor camp during the occupation. Holmes promptly ordered the termination of the conference, on the grounds that the Federation would have nothing to do with a government that would employ war criminals. Starfleet Command demoted Holmes for these actions, restoring him to the rank of Captain, and disbanding his squadron. The Icarus, with Holmes commanding, was reassigned to the defensive perimeter of Starbase 521, under command of Captain Annabelle Hotchkiss. It was here that Holmes was essentially exiled for three months, until a Breen attack on the station on stardate 55989.6 caused what could only be termed a break-down in the chain-of-command. Hotchkiss, though technically his superior officer, was a career administrator, and the only other vessel available for the station's defense was the small and antiquated Oberth-class USS McCullough (NCC-20041). Thus it was Holmes who took command of the one-sided battle. Outmaneuvering the Breen force (through mostly luck), Holmes managed to allow time for the evacuation of the Starbase, before ordering its destruction. With a cost of fewer than one-hundred Starfleet personnel, he had saved a crew of just under five-thousand. Starfleet Command was outraged at the loss of the Starbase, and relieved Holmes of his command to convene a general court-martial for incompetence. Command did not, however, count on the level of loyalty that Holmes had carefully curried with his crew and superiors. The crew of the Icarus refused to serve until he was reinstated as their Captain, and Admiral Ross, the new Starfleet Commander-in-Chief, stepped forward and intervened. Captain Holmes and the Icarus were reassigned to service with the Twelfth Fleet, and headed for the former Romulan Neutral Zone to assist in exploratory efforts resulting from the new Federation-Romulan Alliance. Immediately upon arrival, the Icarus was ordered to rendezvous with a task force commanded by Captain William Riker of the and Captain Eliathin Jii of the . Recent attacks on the Federation-Romulan border by the Reman Ascendancy had resulted in the losses of two Federation outposts, and the deaths of several hundred personnel. The task force reached the Galvanis system to discover that the Reman forces had somehow managed to build a shipyard based on plans acquired from Dominion installations in the recent war, and were constructing the large Scimitar-class Warbirds at an alarming rate. The thirty ship Federation-Romulan task force found itself facing twenty fully-operation Scimitars. After Captain Eliathin attempted and failed to convince the Reman Viceroy to agree to a ceasefire, the Reman force attacked. After a prolonged battle, the Reman units were forced into a ceasefire, effective stardate 56658.9. Negotiations led to the resettlement of many of the Reman people to the Galvanis system, and the Icarus escorted the Miranda-B back to Earth. There Holmes took this opportunity to take two months accumulated shore leave. The October First Attacks On 1 October 2379 (stardate 56748.7), the Federation was struck by the single worst terrorist attack ever to befall the great power. In a matter of a couple of hours, Starbase One was destroyed, the Vulcan Science Academy was bombed, a plague sprung up on Alpha Centauri, and several other attacks were performed on Federation Worlds. The Icarus had left Spacedock only moments before the bomb-rigged starship Washington detonated within, destroying the largest construct the Federation had ever created. The Icarus was merely twelve-hundred meters from the installation. Through pure luck, Holmes had seen the flash of the explosion and managed to hit the Red Alert button on instinct. The Icarus had its shields up when the shockwave hit, but the damage was still severe. Ninety-two percent of the ships crew were casualties, and the ship was incapable of moving under its own power. Still in the middle of the debris field, Holmes ordered his crew to begin the search for survivors amongst the wreckage, refusing to accept help from other starships until he was sure that his ship could last no longer without aid. Throughout these hours, Holmes continued to work steadily, despite massive blood-loss, and a compound fracture in three places upon his right arm. He finally passed out from blood loss and exhaustion, and spent the next five weeks recovering at Starfleet Medical. Phoenix from the Ashes The Icarus was deemed to be far too badly damaged to salvage for active service, and was decommissioned to be donated to the Starfleet Museum. The newest ship was renamed and launched as the on stardate 56852.8. Holmes was given command of the new vessel, again assigned to Fleet Admiral Irene deMercereau's Twelfth Fleet. Present for the anniversary of his homeworld's induction into the Federation, Holmes did not get to take the Icarus-A out of dock for the first time, though the ship headed immediately for Bajor to pick him up. The vessel then headed through the wormhole in response to a distress call from a small Bajoran exploratory cruiser. After assisting in the repairs of the Bajoran ship, the Icarus-A remained in the Gamma Quadrant for several weeks, heading first to the planet Arkadia, a long-lost human colony discovered by the Miranda-B, then to the Founder Homeworld to smooth over diplomatic tensions caused by the actions of Starfleet Rear Admiral Steven Ramsey. Afterwards, the ship spent several weeks cataloging stellar phenomena. Returning to the Alpha Quadrant, the Icarus-A was ordered by Twelfth Fleet command to assist a Romulan fleet in retaking a Romulan member world embroiled in a bloody civil war, in the interest of helping reinforce the Titan Accords. Upon arrival at Norkania, Captain Holmes discovered that the Romulan governor was a steadfast believer in the old guard, and that troops under his guidance had committed acts of genocide, murdering hundreds of thousands of Norkanians, all in the name of "workforce purification." Despite orders from Starfleet Command to remain merely an observer, Holmes offered assistance to Admiral Sela of the Romulan Third Fleet, and, with the help of Commander Donatra of the warbird Valdore, succeeded in arresting the Romulan governor and restoring a stable government on Norkania. Rendezvousing with the Twelfth Fleet afterwards, the Icarus-A participated in a fleet-wide "training exercise" near the Breen border. While the Miranda-B and were in Breen space for diplomatic talks, the Twelfth Fleet was on standby should the talks prove to be a ruse by the Breen. Federation suspicions were confirmed when the sitting Breen government was overthrown by one Thot Gor, who then took on the title Aval (Protector) and launched an attack on the two Federation starships, aided by his allies, the T'Kith'kin - thought to have been wiped out years before - and the Hydrans, who had been absent from galactic politics for over a century. The Twelfth Fleet headed into Breen space in barely enough time to save the two vessels (indeed, the Miranda-B had already lost one of it's three hulls, and the Galaxy had lost her third nacelle), and the enemy forces were defeated at the Battle of Havras. Escorting the two ships back to Starbase 212, Captain Holmes was among one of ten Starfleet captains to hold an unofficial meeting after the battle. In the wake of the Federation Council's decision to classify events that occurred at Havras in order to avoid a civilian panic within the Federation, Captain Eliathin Jii of the Miranda-B, Captain Darren M'Kantu of the Galaxy, Captain Frank Therrien of the Relentless, Holmes and about half a dozen others decided that in order to defend the Federation certain actions had to be taken in secret by members of Starfleet. Thus, a private network of information was created about the Breen, the T'Kith'kin, the Hydrans, and the newly-discovered puppet regime of The Triad, the Yanek. Wonderland Many of the captains involved in the so-called roundtable project were also members of the secret Wonderland organization, and several months after the Battle of Havras Holmes received a message from the enigmatic Cheshire that was three words long: "Stack the deck." Immediately ordering the Icarus-A to set course for Earth, Holmes called a meeting of his senior staff, and told them of certain activities. The rumored Section 31 was a real organization, and they were planning to assassinate several members of the Federation government and upper echelons of Starfleet in order to take over the Federation. The crew of the Miranda-B was preparing to stop them, but certain assistance was needed, in the form of several other starships, including the Icarus-A, as well as several other contacts that had been called in by Cheshire and the agent known as Handler. While in transit, Holmes reviewed the reports sent to him by Captain Elaithin, and found a reference that he had not been expecting. When Jii and himself had been on the Auriga, there was a young woman there, Rae Weber, who had been a Section 31 experiment. Eventually, the Section managed to get her back, but she was now working as a double-agent for Wonderland, though she didn't seem to have any memory of who she really was. Upon arrival in the Sol system, Holmes discovered that Captain Greyheart and the Auriga had gotten involved, and were now in custody at Starbase One. At the same time, he received another message from 'Cheshire', indicating that the Section 31 vessel Black Sovereign was preparing to intercept and destroy the Miranda-B. In a matter of two hours, he infiltrated Starbase One with a small team, rescued Greyheart and his crew, helped them reclaim the Auriga, and returned to the Icarus-A in time to rendezvous with the Miranda-B. The ensuing battle was one again hard on the Icarus-A and her crew. The Black Sovereign being a far superior vessel, and the battle was a difficult one. Icarus herself was disabled when a Section 31 agent onboard sabotaged the primary impulse thrust in the middle of a strategic turn. Torpedoes from the Black Sovereign caught the Icarus’ starboard nacelle, sheering it clear and removing the vessel from the battle. The Black Sovereign was finally destroyed, and a Section 31 boarding party on the Icarus-A was completely wiped out. The crew had once again suffered enormous casualties of ninety-seven dead and over two-hundred wounded. Holmes himself had received fairly extensive wounds when the nacelle was destroyed, casualties among the engineering staff were extensive, and the ship's starfighter group had suffered a nearly sixty percent loss. While the Icarus-A underwent a refit, Captains Holmes and Elaithin, along with Fleet Admiral deMercereau and Cheshire - revealed to be Fleet Admiral Victor Murdock, long believed deceased - confronted Starfleet Commander-in-Chief William Ross about his ties to Section 31, which, thanks to the actions of Wonderland, had all but collapsed. Forced to resign in disgrace, Ross retired quietly. At this juncture, Federation President Nanietta Bacco appointed Murdock as Commander-in-Chief of the Starfleet Operating Forces. First and Second Battles of ch'Rihan With a new administration in Starfleet, Holmes' somewhat more clandestine activities became more acceptable, and several months later, after the disappearance of Commander Joral Anton of Rogue Group while on covert assignment in Lyran territory, Holmes took the Icarus-A into Rihanssu space to search (in vain) for his former crewman. Soon thereafter, he heard about the death of Kit Jordan Elaithin and the resignation of her husband, and took his ship back to their new homeport of Starbase Atlantis to check on the state of his former Auriga crewmate. Though he failed to see Elaithin Jii, he did manage to provide some advice to young Lisnaar Adami (who, as a child, had been rescued from the Cardassian occupation of Bajor by the Auriga), and had a somewhat unexpected encounter with former Auriga crewmember Rae 'Slim' Weber. A few months later, the Hydrans launched a full-scale invasion of Rihannsu territory, and Icarus-A was among the ships to come to their aid. At the First Battle of ch'Rihan, Icarus suffered extremely heavy damage, rivaling that of her late predecessor. Forty percent of the crew was killed, and another fifty-two percent injured. Of those who had remained aboard the vessel when the fleet evacuated from ch'Rihan, leaving it in Hydran hands, only forty-two personnel were fully fit for duty. Much of the damage had occurred when the Hydrans unleashed their new weapon, the Starbeast, a giant living space creature controlled by them and capable on inflicting massive damage on the Federation-Rihannsu fleet. When the beast struck out at the Miranda-B, the Icarus rushed to the flagship's aid, attempting to stop the spin of the much larger vessel with her tractor beam - a failing utterly. Among those severely injured was Captain Holmes, who was in a comatose state in sickbay for a number of days. During his absence, Commander Khoma made it clear that the ship and her crew would participate in any return to the Rihannsu homeworld, regardless of damage and injuries. Upon his return to command - against his doctors' and superiors' orders - Holmes agreed, and made such a mission voluntary; any crewmember who wished to could leave the ship. Despite Holmes' encouragement to all that they take such an offer, no one did. Even with all available hands, Icarus was crewed by a mere one-hundred eighty-nine souls when she joined the reinforced fleet in the Second Battle of ch'Rihan. Fully expecting to die, the crew was quite shocked when they survived the battle, in part due to the efforts of the late-arrived Lyran Resistance Forces, under the command of Miranda's missing CAG, Commander Joral Anton. Also covering the Icarus-A heavily was the massive new Columbia-class Command Carrier USS Atlantia (NCC-80023). At the end of the stellar battle, Captain Holmes did something unprecedented; he turned command of the Icarus-A over to Commander Khoma, took a fighter from the ship's launch bay, and took active command of all Starfleet starfighters in ch'Rihan's atmosphere, ordering surgical strikes against Hydran command targets and ensuring air superiority to defend all Federation and Rihanssu forces taking back the planet. Service Aboard the Miranda He remained there for three weeks, supervising many of the aid operations, before receiving new orders; due to his injuries, Starfleet was attempting to remove him from active command. His injuries and his physical condition, in their opinion, prevented him from performing his duties. After much fighting, a compromise was reached; the Icarus-A would be turned over to a new commanding officer of Holmes' choice, and he would accept a transfer to an administrative position, also of his own choosing. If Starfleet had realized how one-sided the deal was going to be, they may have rejected it. Holmes of course chose Ares Khoma as the new captain of the Icarus-A, as was expected, but pulled some strings when it came to his "administrative" position. Transferring his commission back to the starfighter branch of the service, he spoke to Elaithin Jii, and the two managed to get a full wing of starfighters placed aboard the Miranda-B. Holmes took the post of wing commander at the SFFC rank of Colonel, which while technically a staff officer's position still placed him aboard a front-line exploration and combat vessel and still allowed him to fly if he saw fit. Suffice to say, Starfleet Command was not pleased. Holmes' stint in command of Rogue Wing was to be short-lived, however. Only months after taking his post, the Colonel retired from the service, obstensibly for health reasons. Four days later, his former command, the Icarus-A, along with its entire crew, went missing. Investigations of her previous known coordinates showed nothing. It was not until days later that it was discovered that Holmes' whereabouts too were unknown, as were the whereabouts of several of his former colleagues - never mind the entire crew of the Icarus. However, the search for the missing vessel and personnel was called off almost before it had began, and information about these events is classified at the highest levels. Examinations of SFI records indicate that the location of Holmes and his colleagues is code-word classified, limited only to SFI Director Marta Batanides, her Chief-of-Staff Captain Nelis Saler, SFI Director-in-Charge of Covert Operations K. Jordan Elaithin, USS Miranda-B CO Rear Admiral Elaithin Jii, Starfleet Operating Forces Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral Victor Murdock, and President Nan Bacco. Addendum written by Lieutenant Stesnar th'Tralk, Starfleet Bureau of Personnel: It is important to note that shortly before these disappearances, several Starfleet personnel and former personnel close to Holmes were transferred into new positions or came into what can only be described as fortuitous circumstances. Even more curious was a secret and off-the-record meeting that was rumored to have occurred between Vice admiral Alminia Ela, Starfleet Liaison to President Bacco, and top members of the Federation Security Council. While nothing is known of this meeting - including definitive information on whether or not it even occurred - what is known is that shortly after the alleged conversation, all known Federation covert units were withdrawn from the Triad border regions. Meanwhile, a new combined arms unit was created on Starbase Atlantis, consisting of various Starfleet specialists, Marines with experience as Rangers or other special operations units, highly-skilled SFFC personnel, and SFI analysts. The unit in question was provided with unprecedented requisition power and an disproportionate amount of SFI resources, as had been proposed for such a unit several years before by then-Commander Juan Holmes. Holmes compatriot Joral Anton, newly-promoted to Colonel of the SFFC, was given command of this unit, answerable only to SFI Director Batanides and Starfleet CinC Murdock. Indeed, the unit was not even stationed in the same area of the massive station as the other Starlfeet personnel, but instead in a section that, according to all records, is still uninhabitable. Among other occurrences were the simultaneous disappearances of SFFC Lieutenant Lisnaar Adami of Rogue Wing and Olympian citizen Jakob Durden, Holmes' former chief-of-staff, among many other postings alongside the increasingly-enigmatic Holmes. At the same time, Colonel Saler, Chief-of-Staff to Director Batanides, created what was termed the Federation Office of Border Sustainability. The staff of this office consisted of three SFI officers above the rank of Major, and one civilian "consultant" - retired Command Master Chief Petty Officer of Starfleet Ambrose Emerson, a loyal supporter and former crewmate of both Colonel Holmes and Fleet Admiral Murdock. This office shows no operational staff on its rolls, but has code-word status and unchecked requisition power. Investigations of the records of the three assigned officers (such records as are public) show all three to be computer specialists and cryptography experts. The Holmes-Murdock connection should be emphasized; since Holmes' survival of the Dark Angels incident during the Dominion War, many of Fleet Admiral Murdock's closest compatriots have coincidentally become Holmes loyalists as well. Other officers also unknowingly received the Fleet Admiral's favor, among them Elaithin Jii, Kit Elaithin (nee Jordan), and Rae Weber. It is in fact possible that Holmes, Elaithin, and Weber were all under his eye since earlier than that, when they were all crewmembers of the independent freighter Auriga, whose master, one Damon Greyheart, was a former Starfleet officer and helm officer onboard Murdock's first command, the USS Cheyenne (NCC-71620). No matter what the connection, all of these personnel would later surface as key players in Murdock's Wonderland project, which severely crippled the shadowy Section 31. There are many in Starfleet who are of the belief that several of the Wonderland alumnus are once again acting behind the scenes, this time against the perceived Triad threat. Wonderland is known to have co-opted several Section 31 resources, including the dangerous genetically engineered agent 'Slim' (once thought to be Rae Weber), so some are concerned should this theoretical new group of officers have ill intentions. Classified The following section is Code Word classified. Access of this section by unauthorized personnel is a violation of the Federation Securities Act of 2194. written by Captain Nelis Saler, Chief-of-Staff to the Director of Starfleet Intelligence After an illustrious career as a command officer, Juan Holmes has come to the attention of Starfleet Intelligence more than once. Indeed, his first action as a covert operative came during the Dominion War, while Holmes was a member of the Special Operations Squadron Dark Angels, which was a cover operation being run by Section 31, unbeknownst to the members of the squadron. Mr. Holmes was instrumental in several other covert operations throughout his career, both sanctioned and otherwise. The most notable of these latter was his participation in the Wonderland organization. For this organization, the Icarus’ primary mission was one of intelligence gathering, a mission that they continued at the behest of Fleet Admiral Murdock prior to the commencement of the Quadrant War until Holmes' transfer to the Miranda-B. Thus, he was the perfect man to run another pet project of Admiral Murdock's, Project Loki. The purpose of Loki was one that would never be sanctioned were the circumstances not dire. After the attacks on ch'Rihan, the Quadrant War was imminent. However, the politics of the matter were such that the Federation could not enter an overt war without a direct attack on Federation territory by the Triad powers, despite the loss of Starfleet lives at ch'Rihan and in numerous border skirmishes. Realistically, the Federation was already at war, but the lack of mobilization or overt action was a severe handicap. Thus, it was determined that the only way to fight the war was through covert action. Offices were set up within the Starfleet Intelligence Directorate, reporting to various members of the Starfleet Operating Forces' command structure, all with different purposes. These offices and their existence were kept as tightly held secrets, known only to a small group of officers and Federation officials. Project Loki's activities are known to very few personnel, none of whom outside the unit itself are below the rank of Captain. Command and control of Project Loki, however, is reserved only to President Bacco, who mostly allows Holmes free reign to conduct his activities. These activities include disruption of key Triad supply lines and command structures through means of surgical strikes, sabotage, and assassinations. The base of operations for Project Loki is a privately held station located in the Briar Patch, christed Labyrinth Station. Vessels assigned to it include the Icarus (officially listed as "Missing"), the frigate USS Minotaur (NCC-18202) (listed as decommissioned 2379 and scrapped 2383), a Klingon D7 Class battlecruiser christed the Daedalus, two B'rel Class Birds-of-Prey, the Loki and the Coyóte, an Akyazi Class Perimeter Action Ship the USS Mercury (NCC-5321) (officially listed as destroyed 2381), the Mississippi Class Freighter Havras (originally the USS Taipei (NCC-29195) listed as decommissioned 2364, sold to private interests 2370), and the Ju'Day Class Courier Chin'Toka (originally the USS Rio Bravo (NCC-28427), listed as decommissioned 2370, sold to private interests 2371). All of these vessels have been updated and heavily modified, including being fitted with advance weapons and sensor-dampening suites, as well as cloaking devices. Commensurate with his position, Colonel Holmes' commission was transferred back to the fleet, and he was elevated in rank to Commodore. His "retirement" is an official cover story, as well as a method to allow for plausible deniability by the Federation authorities should his activities become known. Personality Holmes is a private man, with few people he is willing to call "friends". Most, if not all, of those are colleagues, people he has served with or commanded over the years. He is known for the rarity of his praise. He is more likely to point out the errors of his subordinates than to laud their successes, though the former is never done in malice, and is meant as a learning experience. Those who please him earn his unwavering loyalty, and those who fail to meet his expectations find themselves transferred quickly. He is renowned for his memory, and he never fails to remember the names of his entire crew, past and present. His personnel are unwaveringly loyal to him, a fact exhibited when the entire crew of the Icarus mutinied against Starfleet Command in 2379 to protest Holmes' court-martial. Holmes' psychological profiles show him to be clever, devious, ambitious, loyal, confidant, trustworthy, highly observant, and morally flexible. Strangely enough, it seems that he has never shown a genuine interest in romantic liaisons. He appears to have a single-mindedness about his career, and his ambition and sense of duty seem to have over-taken all other thoughts of a more personal nature. This last trait is easily explained by his long-standing infatuation with one Major Rae 'Slim' Weber, though he could have hardly known that 'Slim' was not Rae Weber, nor anyone else that she claimed to be. The emotional turmoil that this has caused is, to say the least, pronounced. General Notes Juan Holmes is disturbing to behold at first. Half-human and half-Bajoran, he somehow looks incomplete, as if he is of neither race. He was known to wear a dress uniform in combat, rather than a standard duty uniform, and this uniform was always custom tailored; opposite his comm-badge was typically pinned a set of pilot's wings custom-made by one of the finest craftsmen in the quadrant. He wears the traditional Bajoran earring to be contrary, rather than to respect the Bajoran religion. When he is armed, he carries the pulse pistol typically issued to Starfleet Marines, citing its greater versatility. In addition, like many other officers who served in the Dominion War, he always makes sure to have at least one close-combat weapon at hand. In his case it is a Nepalese weapon called a khukri, a large forward curved Ghurka knife. He is quite skilled in the use of this weapon, and has blended the traditional combat form with that of Klingon mekh'leth technique. He has an optical implant in place of his left eye. The original eye was lost when he was severely injured in combat while retaking Deep Space Nine from forces under Section 31 on stardate 53187.1. When his fighter was destroyed, Holmes was forced to eject, and his ejection seat collided with a passing Starfleet vessel, breaking several ribs, rupturing a kidney, puncturing a lung, breaking his left leg and arm, and destroying his left eye. On 1 October 2379, Holmes' command was within twelve-hundred meters of Starbase One upon its destruction. In the resulting shockwave, Holmes received a severe concussion and a compound fracture to three place upon his right arm. He continued working, and eventually passed out from blood-loss and physical exhaustion. His actions that day would earn him the Federation Medallion, the highest honor available to a Starfleet officer. Captain Holmes was once again injured when his vessel was severely damaged by the rogue starship Black Sovereign. Holmes received a severe cut to the head and a laceration of the left kidney. His fourth injury in the line-of-duty was sustained during the First Battle of ch'Rihan. The severity of his wounds led to Starfleet's decision to remove him from active command at medical recommendation. Suffice to say, Holmes did not take this particularly well, which is what led him to make the 'deal' that he did. Holmes looks far older than his actual age of 39. He carries himself with dignity, and his pomp is unmatched by Starfleet's officer corps. The dark hazel coloring of his right eye makes even more-conspicuous the deep blue of the optical implant where his left one had once resided. Between them, his hawk-like nose shows his half-Bajoran heritage. However, despite the immaculate cut of his uniform, his hair is notoriously frazzled. Category:Starfleet personnel Category:Hybrids